Family pet ‘menacing’
An animal trainer has failed to persuade city officials that his german shepherd escape artist should escape a muzzle.
As a result, Rex, deemed menacing by the city’s animal control department, remains a perceived threat. Sam, a small fox terrier who bared his teeth, however, will not suffer a similar fate.
Hamilton City councillors were noticeably uncomfortable when applying the ‘‘blunt’’ measure of forced muzzling in public -a requirement for menacing dogs - at the regulatory and hearing committee on Thursday.
Andrew Rabbitt fronted the five-councillor committee to defend Rex, labelled menacing for mauling a cat and causing its death. Rex was a friendly, enthusiastic german shepherd with a penchant for escaping, Rabbitt said.
But the witness statements from June last year tell of a different side to the family pet.
A witness saw Rex growling and reaching for a cat, which was bloodied and hissing, under a car just before midnight on Sunday, June 19, 2016.
‘‘Very friendly with humans, but not cats,’’ the witness wrote in a statement.
Animal control arrived at 12:30am and Rex was impounded. The officer returned to capture the cat and took it to an after-hours vet.
The cat’s hind legs were dislocated, among other injuries. The vet put it down the next day.
Rabbitt, an assistant trainer at a dog club, said it was embarrassing that Rex kept escaping from his poorly fenced rental property.
Both dog and owner now live on a lifestyle block and Rex no longer tries to escape. Rabbitt argued a muzzle would be excessive.
‘‘If it was him that tried to attack this cat, having a muzzle when I’m walking him ... it seems to be a bit overrated when he’s under control on my watch.’’
Councillor Mark Bunting was conflicted. He said muzzling a dog in public was a ‘‘blunt instrument’’.
‘‘Is a muzzle an appropriate thing to fix the problem when the dog’s with Andrew?’’ Councillor Siggi Henry was also unsure.
‘‘Do we put a muzzle on a dog when he’s actually okay? We put the wrong thing at the wrong time.’’
But Councillor Leo Tooman asked the committee to assess the facts: Rex had a long history of escaping. Committee chair Angela O’Leary agreed.
‘‘One witness did report they saw the dog make contact with the cat.’’
The committee, which included Councillor Philip Yeung, voted to maintain the menacing status. Also before the committee was Brad Ager, who asked that his small fox terrier Sam have his menacing label removed.
Sam escaped through a door left open and roamed on to the property of another Hamilton resident in November 2016. The resident felt threatened by Sam, who bared his teeth, and called animal control. A pole and net had to be used to contain the dog.
‘‘He couldn’t break the skin of a custard [square],’’ Ager said of his pet.
Councillors were not satisfied with animal control’s decision to declare him menacing and voted against it. O’Leary said the dog was clearly trapped in an unfamiliar environment. Bunting agreed, saying the dog likely had good reason to be frightened.
Tooman voted against the motion. He said councillors should listen to the experts and a muzzle was not a burden.